Fate and Freedom XVI-2: Call of the Shadows
Gale let a wave of wind rush forward form her, throwing all of the soldiers into the wall with such force that they had probably broken their necks or some other fatal injury, because the were a series of craking sounds, and the bodies were still. Kazir stood where he was, his face still contorted with anger. "You mad? Are you gonna cry?" Gale said, mocking Kazir's mocking. "How the hell did you know about that!?" Kazir hissed. "I don't how or why, but I saw everything that was happening while I was "dead"." Suddenly, Kazir's rage exploded, and he turned his ire upon Gale, rushing forward, thier swords clashing. When thier swords clashed, Kazir felt something pass through him, like the spirit of a great Wyrm. His eyes widened. "You've unlocked your full potential too!? Oh, happy day!" Kazir said sarcastically, pushing Gale aside, following up with a series of angry, desperate and inaccurate slams with his sword, trying to knock her Lost Black Katana out of her hand. "DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE!!!" he screeched, too angry to think of anything smart ad insulting to say. Gale povoted around him and hit kazir in the back of the head with the handle of her sword, then loose a huge burst of gale-force wind, blowing him away quite literally, tumbling across the Citadel hallway. Gale riased her sword to her side, in line with her head, and charged at him valiantly. Kazir managed to peel himself off of the floor just in time to deflect the attack with a quick, last-chance swing of his blade, it's cold piercing into Gale's very soul. Kazir grinned, although it had lost it's usual carefree sarcasm, as his rage-induced frown distorted it. She pulled through the cold, shoving Kazir's weapon out of the way with a strained grunt, kicking him in the face and sending him reeling over yet again. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ "Ugh...I could see everything that was going on, but..I was comatose, wasn't I?" Tsubaki said weakly, holding her hand against her head, as if recovering from a hangover, Arashi standing in front of her. "Yeah, Gale was ike that too. Glad we don't need to fill you in on what happened. I think the Lake did that, but I can' be sure," Arashi said. "I'm sorry I was so useless back there. I'm not that great a hunter, unfortunately," Tsubaki groaned, shuffling her feet, twirling the sword of her Abyssal Striker set nervously. Arashi put his hand's on her shoulders comfortingly. "You're not useless," he reassured her. "Yes, I am." "No, you're not." Tsubaki looked up at Arashi. She hugged him, warmly for a few seconds. When she pulled away, they founf their gazes locked once again. As Tsubaki leaned toward the boy impulsively, the moment was interrupted by the mysterious Nina appearing before them once again. She huffed impatiently. "Where did your father, go, Arashi?" Nina sighed. "He, uh...went back to the fight at the east airdocks. Apparently Gigas and Altair have had a run-in with someone nasty." Nina sighed once again, clearly frustrated by her inability to track down the nineteen-year-old, and stepped through yet another white gateway. Arashi and Tsubaki waited a few moments, before they quickly returned to where they were, as Tsbukai gently pressed her lips against his. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Gigas swung his sword at Tiamat for what felt like the thousandth time. They had been fighting for what felt, to Gigas, like forever, trading endless blows, scoring the occasional hit, before recovering and repeating the same old song and dance with different swings. Tiamat uppercutted her blade into Gigas, who blocked it, countering with a right hook, his fist engulfed in blazing flames. The puch connected, winding the Abyssal Sanctum soldier and sending her tumbling into a gathering of amalgamated corpses a few metres away. The elite warrior recovered quickly with a wave of black shadow, which Gigas countered with a wave of fire, the two cancelling each other out. Altair, who took his chance (having recovered from his bout with the Reaper of Babylon a while ago), combat rolled to the side, shooting his pistol rapidly, somersaulting every which way to avoid Tiamat's sword and shadows. Tiamat truned her attention to Altair, until Gigas joined in again, forcing her to have to pivot her body in order to block hits from the two Descendants together. "Enough o' this crap! Lie down, bitch!" Gigas growled hoarsely, puching the Sanctum soldier in the stomach, his strength crushing her into a wall, where she stayed, alive, but flacid with exhaustion, her sword dropping to the floor with a clattering sound. He stalked toward her impatiently, and grabbed her face tighly in his all-encompassing palm, wrecnhing the woman from the wall and slamming her back into it forecefully over and over again, before pivoting and, still having a grip on her face, slamming her into the neatly paved ground beneath her with an almighty thub, the well placed stones cracking around her shape like a cardboard cut out. When Gigas pulled away, he could see that her face was a little bloodied,and her helmet had been shattered, as its pieces fell away from her face as he lifted his hand from it. As Gigas was about to plunge his sword into Tiamat's chest, Altair stepped forward. "Huh?" Gigas said curiously, his brow furrowed with confusion. Altair took one look toward Tiamat, his gaze filled with scorn and disgust. A dull flash surrounded him,a nd, in the blink of an eye, his form was writhing with wispy shadows, and his eyes glowed a pupilless vermillion. "Only shadow can kill shadow," Altair grunted, plungig his gauntletted right fist into Tiamat's chest, blood spurting from the wound. As the dark soldier shrieked, the shadow oozing from her soul, Altair pulled out his hand, a beating heart within it, which he them crushed, ending the life of the elite Sanctum soldier. Altair, still wrapped in shadows, casually walke over to Tiamat's dropped Dark Claw "Demise", picking it up slowly. He then swung it around at the air, it's already hooked blade extending further somehow, until it was almost sctythe-like, and it glowed with sinister violet ephemera. He then jumped impossibly high, darwing himself back until he could see the airdocks before him, raising the scythe in the air behind him, his face indifferent and placid, shoulder-length black hair billowing in the wind. "ENOUGH!" he growled, and swung the scythe forward, a wave of black and purple shadow raging across the Lost City like a black tide, washing away the imperial soldiers, but somehow sparing the innocents. Altair looked on in horror, amazement and relief as he discovered the true extent of his dark powers. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Roux ran at Lux, the other elite of the Abyssal Sanctum, her Alatreon hammer (in stark contrast with her Rathalos S armour) dragging behind her. Her silent adversary lifted his gargantuan Alatreon Revolution aloft, ready to smite the young woman. She battered the soldier with a hammer strike, which he managed to block with his Great Sword just in time. He then countered with a series of swift, heavyhanded blows, before batting the girl away with the flat of the blade and to the floor. Makoto recovered from the hit that Luyx had dealt her a few minutes ago. She turned to check on Skylar. Still unconscious. Luckily, the imperial numbers were thinning, and some of the airships they had docked were being ripped apart by Lagaicrus-pulled Kyuuryuu airships (how these Leviathans could slither through the air like they were stil swimming was a mystery, however), while others had simply retreated from the battle entirely. Makoto held her matenbou in her hands horizontally, struggling to keep it aloft as Lux bore down on her with his Great Sword, which the Matenbou was proctecting Makoto's body from. Her face creased with strain, until at last the could no longer hold her position, allowing the sword to diasrm her, although the force made the accuracy dwindle, and she watched as the sword pierced the gorun sharply beside her. Luz simply left it stood on the ground, grabbing Makoto by the throat and lifting her up to look him eye-to-eye. Although the eyes were the white eyes-shaped circles that were place don the Alatreon helm, she felt...no, she knew that he was staring into her. In what she though would be her last moments, she found the irony; Lux (as he seemed to be called, after several soldiers cried out his name before he slew them), meant "light". How more ironically could one be named when they are a dark Descendant? As Lux prepared to snap Makoto's neck, he turned around to meet a pitch black wall of shadow. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Gale slshed at Kazir, who was now on the defensive, repeatedly with her Lost Black Katana, her Kirin X armour providing good mobility for a nimble opponent like him. She once again sliced into him with her blade, finally disarming the man. She kicked him to the floor, and held the Long Sword to his throat. He sneered at her in annoyance. "Whatever, You're still just a filthy human," he spat. "Have you taken a good look in the mirror lately? YOU'RE HUMAN TOO!" Gale retorted, taking as much pleasure in his annoyance as he did in her suffering. Kazir growled, which then escalated into a roar. He yanked his sword and stood up, slicing into Gale with the blade. The blade hit her armour, but the searing coldness that followed made her sink to her knees. As Kazir prepared to once more kill the young Descendant in his ire, he turned to see a wave of shadow rolling toward him like a Tsunami. "Maybe next time" he sneered, fleeing the city in a bright flash as the darkness washed over Gale. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Altair watched as the shadow wave he instigated faded away, every trace of the imperials wiped out in a flash. Sure, there were a few damaged buildings here and there, but over all there were no imperials powerful enough to damage anything severely, and airships didn't have any weapons, att least not in this land. He ddin't know, or care, but somehow the shadow he had conjured hadn't affected anything but the imperials. He swooped back to the ground where Gigas and the dead Tiamat were, the shadows that enveloped him disappearing and his crimson eyes returning to their original green colour. Gigas slowly walked over to the wall where his Agnablaster lay and slung it over his shoulder like a bindle, walking back to Gigas. "Well, that was fun," Gigas sighed. "Let's go back and find the others." "Yes," Altair agreed calmly, smiling a little at what he had accomplished. "Quite." Suddenly, Mizu came running up to the pair. "Did you guys see that shadow thing? It just wiped away all the imperials!" Mizu exclaimed, with both concern and happiness. "That was I," ALtair replied simply raising his hand out toward Mizu as he opened his mouth to probe him about it. "We are heading back to the Citadel. I do not wish to speak of my actions." ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Makoto and Roux slowly peeled themselves off off the floor. Soldiers and civilians alike stood in the slightly rublble-littered streets cheering at their victory. While they knew it was nothing special compared to the innumberable armies of the White Star empire, it was good to know that the Lost City wasn't going to be subjugated. Not today. Slowly, Skylar spurred back into life, here eyes blinking open slowly as she sheated her Hidden Ones away. Makoto helped her up with a smile, and Roux came to join them. Lux was nowhere to be seen. Either way, they had forgotten about him anyway. "I think it would be a good idea to go back to the Citadel now. Tamari is probably waiting for us," Makoto said with carefree glee. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Gale slowly moved her arms away from her body and sheathed her sword, getting to her feet. She didn't understand; all she saw was blackness, and then it disappeared, and every trace of the imperials here was gone. Why did it only wipe out the enemy and not the Lagiacrus soldiers, or the civilians, or even her and her friends. She stood and headed back into to the Citadel. Suddenly, she turned around to see Gigas, Altair, Skylar, Roux, Makoto, and Mizu come walking up from the street that led to the Citadel, metting in a group with her. She quickly forgot about them, her eyes locked onto Mizu. Instinctively, she ran for him, and he for her, the two quickly colliding, their lips locking passionately before anybody could say anything. After what was at least thirty seconds, she pulled herself away, smiling. "I missed you," she said sweetly. He smiled back at her. Together, the group, reunited at last, walked into the Citadel together. To Be Continued in: Fate and Freedom XVII: A Rebellion in the Making Category:Fan Fiction